


Reading the lightning thief

by Sabrieltrash11



Series: Reading Heros Storys [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Children, F/M, Family, Future, Love, M/M, Past, Pregnancy, babys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-06 04:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11028438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sabrieltrash11/pseuds/Sabrieltrash11
Summary: On the summer solstice of 1998, something different happens. A book appears, a gift from chaos that causes many guests to appear in the Gods throne room, suspiciously the same time a new character is introduced in the book. The Gods are just as unhappy about this as their guests, who claim to all be from 2017. Add a pregnant wife to the mix, a couple long dead friends, plus a hellhound, and this is shaping up to be the craziest summer solstice yet!





	1. Percy and Grover

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I know I have other fics I haven't touch in a year but I really want to do this one

It was a normal day on Olympus.

Well, as normal as 12 Olympian Gods plus Hades can get on a summer solstice.

Artemis was fighting with Apollo again. Seating them on opposite ends of the throne room didn’t stop them from yelling at each other.

Zeus was arguing with Poseidon and Hades, the three not yet yelling but coming very close.

Dionysus was drinking a coke having a nice conversation with Demeter about grape plants, both happily ignoring everyone else.

Hermes was also ignoring everyone, talking on his phone with his legs casually crossed in front of him. His tiny snakes winding around his hand.

Ares was polishing his shield while half listening to Hera complain about Zeus and his latest affair.

Aphrodite was mooning over Ares while putting on lipstick.

Hephaestus was glaring at his wife and Ares, tinkering with something that looked suspiciously like a bomb.

Athena sat quietly, watching everyone with a disapproving frown.

This of course was the usual for the solstices. But on this solstice of 1998, things were about to stray from the norm.

“Alright, QUIET” Zeus finally bellowed.

Everyone turned to look at him except for Hermes, who continued to talk on his phone about something to do with pigs.

“We have important things to discuss. Lets all stop bickering for five minutes and get things done!”

“Says you!” Hades grumbled, “you caused this fight to begin with!”

“Brother please” Poseidon sighed, “let it go for now.”

Hades opened his mouth to argue more but Apollo butted in.

“What exactly is there to talk about?” he asked as he shook Hermes to pay attention. “All has been quiet with the titans, there is no on going war, the great prophecy still hasn’t come to pass as you three,” he pointed to Zeus, Poseidon and Hades in turn, “haven’t had any more children that I am aware of. What is there to discuss?”

The big three Gods all looked guilty, but Apollo had already moved on.

“I think we should just have a party or something. We never do anything fun anymore”

“I agree!” Hermes exclaimed, shutting his phone, “with drinks!”

“If there’s drinks I’m in” Dionysus put in.

“You are not allowed!” Zeus growled.

Before they knew it, everyone was fighting again. It seemed that another solstice would pass with nothing but fighting when suddenly a very bright light filled the room, successfully quieting everyone.

In the lights place sat a black stand. It was the size of a podium, covered in strange pictures of children fighting monsters. It didn’t need saying that everyone knew what these pictures were off: half bloods.

On top of the stand sat a book. It didn’t look like much, just a picture of a boy standing in the sea. But it radiated power.

A piece of paper fell from the celeing and onto Zeus’s lap. Hesitantly, and with all the Gods watching him intently, he opened it and read aloud:

 

_“Dear Olympians,_

_You know who I am. I have sent you a gift I expect you to accept gratefully. It will help in the distant future._

_This book is of things still to come, do not take it lightly. Written in these pages are lessons I expect you to learn._

_Do not disappoint me._

_Ps, you may have company.”_

 

“Who’s it from?” Apollo asked, braking the stony silence that had followed Zeus’s words.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Athena asked. She was staring at the book with such intensity it was amazing it didn’t catch fire.

“uh… no?” Demeter frowned.

“Who is it Athena?” Poseidon asked.

“Yes who?” Artemis joined in.

Athena stepped down from her throne and shrunk down to human size, about 5’3. She picked the book up off the stand and turned back to Zeus.

“Well chaos of course”

Complete disbelief answered her words. The Olympians screamed “Lies!” at her from all sides. Another full-on fight was just around the corner when Zeus once again bellowed “QUIET!”

It took longer, but everyone settled down again.

“Athena, what is it called” Poseidon asked.

Athena looked down at the cover and read:

**Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief**

Poseidon paled. Zeus stood up, red faced in anger. “THE LIGHTNING THEIF?!” he bellowed, “HOW DARE THEY!”

“Father please” Athena soothed, “let us read it before we jump to conclusions”

Huffing and growling, Zeus sat back down.

Athena resumed her throne and opened the book. “I will start” she announced.

**Chapter One: I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER**

“I like this book already” Ares smiled evilly.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

**If your reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie you mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

“That’s not possible for a half blood, especially one who already suspects” Artemis interrupted.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

The Gods all looked down in sadness. People may not think they cared, but those half bloods are their sons and daughters. And even Hera and Artemis had known wonderful half bloods who had suffered awful fates and felt horrible about it.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before _they_ sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

“This kid is very pleasant my goodness” Apollo mumbled.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

The room shook. Another blast of light filled the room, only this time, instead of a book, stood a man.

He was tall, about 6’0. He had black wind swept hair and bright sea green eyes. He had a bit of a beard, almost like he had just forgotten to shave. He wore a green shirt with “BEST DAD EVER” written in black lettering across the front. He had blue swim shorts on and saddles on his feet. When he saw the Gods, he glared.

“Oh hell no. I refuse to do ANY more of your dirty work. I have kids now, I will NOT go on another stupid quest to save you. GET SOME OTHER DEMIGOD OKAY?!”

Silence followed the demigod’s words. The Gods were stunned. How dare someone talk to them in such a way? It was Athena who broke the silence.

“What do you mean, ‘another quest to save us’? we have no idea who you are. We can assume you are Percy Jackson as you appeared at that name, but that is all”

The man, Percy, stared at them. His eyes stayed on Poseidon the longest, then he asked, “what year is it?”

Hermes answered, “1998, why?”

Percy groaned and fell to the ground, mumbling “no, no, no, not again, no”

Worried, Demeter got up from her throne and shrunk down to the man’s side.

“Percy? We think you were brought here to listen to your story. Are you from a different time?”

Percy sat up slowly, playing with a wedding ring on his finger.

“Yes. I come from the year 2017. I’m 24 years old with a baby girl and a son due any day now. I want to go home”

Demeter felt a stab of pity. Now that she was level with him, she could see the pain of endless battles in his eyes. ‘We’ll get you home as soon as we finish this book. Its about you after all”

Percy frowned at looked at the book Athena still held. He didn’t look happy about it, but he nodded at her to continue.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

**Yeah. You could say that.**

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan—twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

**I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**

“I take offence to that” Hermes frowned. Percy shrugged unapologetically.

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

“That sounds like Chiron” Dionysius mumbled.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary war cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

Apollo burst out laughing, “That’s amazing!”. Percy gave him a small smile.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that…Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

Another bright light interrupted Athena, leaving a satyr this time. He was 5’9 with curly brown hair and brown eyes. When he saw Percy, he charged him.

“Perrrccccyyyyy!!”

Percy laughed, giving him a big hug. “hey G-man.

“Where have you been? You promised to stop by soon! Juniper misses you”

“I was going to but I got sent here”, Percy gestured to the Gods and quickly explained what was going on. Poseidon made a couch appear for them to sit on and gestured to Athena to continue.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated.**

**He must have been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

“What horrible undercover” Artemis said, glaring at Grover, who galped and shrunk away.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

" **I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

“Not a good idea” Hades commented. Everyone stared at him.

“What? Its not logical”

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

" **That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

" **You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

“You really like foreshadowing, don’t you?” Hermes asked Percy, who shrugged.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

“Longer” Zeus told Percy.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a _stele_ , for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

“Uh oh” Demeter whispered.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

“And you told him that why?” Poseidon asked coldly. Grover shrunk farther into the couch.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you just _shut up?"_**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

" **Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

" **Yes." Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because…"**

" **Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

“God?” Hermes asked, offended. “He was not a God!”

“Shh!” Athena snapped.

" **God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

" **Titan," I corrected myself. "And…he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right?** **But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

" **Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"— **and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continues, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

“Well you knew something” Athena commented.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

" **And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss. Bobofit's excellent question, dos this matter in real life?"**

“Busted” Apollo and Hermes said at the same time.

" **Busted," Grover muttered.**

" **Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

" **I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living andgrowing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lean us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything."**

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

Some of the Gods looked at Percy in pity.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

“Sounds like you two were fighting again” Hera sighed. Zeus just shrugged while Poseidon looked ashamed.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers.**

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse,** **and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

“Sorry” Grover mumbled. Percy patted him on the back, “its okay”

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

No one saw it, but Poseidon gave a small wistful smile.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

“Ew” Aphrodite spoke up for the first time, a look of disgust on her face.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

“Nice description” Apollo laughed.

**I tried to stay cool.**

**The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

Athena frowned to herself.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

“Monster” Demeter shivered.

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about.**

**All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

“No kidding!” Hermes exclaimed.

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

“Sounds terrifying” Artemis sighed, rolling her eyes.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

Poseidon shifted in his seat nervously.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

Ares raised an eyebrow.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing.**

**I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

Everyone glared at Hades, who frowned.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. She snarled, "Die, honey!" And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water.**

**Hisss!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

Grover shivered.

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing? I went back outside. It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious." Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperon. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

Athena put a book mark in the book and looked at Percy with Pity. “The mist messes with the mind. Sorry it was like that for you”

Percy waved his hand, “it was years ago, I don’t care anymore”

“That’s just it though” Artemis said, “for you it was years ago, for us it hasn’t happened yet.”

The Gods shifted uncomfortably.

“Who is your father?” Dionysus asked suspiciously.

Percy gulped, “um you’ll find out”

“Yes” Athena said. “Here Artemis, will you read us the next chapter?”

“I guess” she took the book from Athena and opened it to the next chapter.


	2. Artemis reads

**THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH**

“Oh boy. I remember them” Percy whispered to Grover, who shivered.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

“The mist is truly wonderful” Athena commented.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

“Five drachmas says the goat is to blame” Apollo bet Hermes.

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

Hermes glared at Grover as he dug out the coins. Grover shrunk into his seat.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

“Poor dear” Aphrodite cooed, not taking her eyes off the mirror she held in her hand.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

“ _Why_ are you two fighting this time?” Athena asked Poseidon and Zeus, who both shrugged. “It must be bad” Athena sighed.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

“You shouldn’t be so rude to teachers” Athena tusked. “Quiet Athena”, Demeter hissed.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.**

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

Grover snorted, smiling at Percy, who shrugged.

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

“That’s bad” Hephaestus noted. “No really?” Ares growled.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

“Its not that hard” Artemis said, looking up from the book at Percy, who shrugged again.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

Athena nodded in approval.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

**"... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

Apollo chuckled.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line— "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

Hermes started clapping. “Well done sir. Well done”. Percy rolled his eyes.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

Athena sat forward, thinking.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

“You very much were” Apollo chuckled, “or will be, depending on how you look at it.”

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

“Ouch” Demeter winched.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

“Wimp” Ares smirked. Percy glared at him with his wolf stare, making some of the gods shift uncomfortably. Athena frowned, how had he learned that Roman trick?

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

“Not very cool” Apollo said helpfully.

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

“Wow” Hera said, giving Percy a stern look.

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

 

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

“Dangerous question” Athena mumbled.

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

All the gods stiffened, staring at Percy in horror, except for Zeus, who was reading a sports magazine.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

“Well!” Artemis slammed the book shut. “That was entertaining. Here brother, catch” she tossed the book to Apollo, who held it out like some kind of smelly trash he wanted nothing to do with.

“It won’t hurt you” Percy smirked.

“Easy for you to say”, Apollo grumbled.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to Kudo and Comment!


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